Career Development Program for Refugee and Migrant Youth

The Career Guidance for Refugee and Migrant Young People project is an initiative of the South Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre funded by the Department of Education and Training. It aims to develop, pilot and evaluate a career development and planning program that specifically meets the learning levels and needs of refugee youth with low levels of education, cultural life skills and English language ability

Health services management graduate employability skills : perceptions of employers and graduates

There is no specific profile in the literature of skill requirements for health services management (HSM). However, to develop competent health service managers firstly their skill requirements must be identified. This thesis used an inclusive definition of employability skills (ES) from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training (DEST, 2002, p. 143)1, where ES encompass skills “not only to gain employment, but also to progress within an enterprise.” This covers technical or discipline specific skills, knowledge, capabilities and personal attributes. More recently, the Australian Employability Skills Framework (2012)2 acknowledges ES as skills and knowledge that enable employees to perform effectively in the workforce and apply technical or discipline specific skills. This document further recognises the contextual nature of ES, suggesting that ES profiles will vary for particular jobs. Hence the importance of developing a profile of ES for HSM. Findings can be used in curriculum development, by careers advisors and by employers for ongoing professional development. The aim of this thesis was to make HSM requirements more visible. To this end the study aimed to identify ES required to work in the field from the perspective of three data sources. The essential skills contained in advertisements for graduate HSM positions were used in this triangulation design. An integrative review of empirical studies using content analysis of job vacancy advertisements, was undertaken and published. Findings were used to inform development of analysis of vacancy advertisements for 100 graduate HSM positions in two major NSW newspapers and on two employment websites. Then findings from this publication were used in the development of surveys of the perceptions of senior health managers and recent graduates working in the field. A total of 38 senior managers and 42 recent graduates participated in email surveys, identified through a NSW metropolitan university placement data base. The surveys were designed to permit comparisons. ES important to managers were revealed and they also rated skill levels observed in graduates they supervised, using a five point Likert scale on ES 44 items. The same scale was used by recent graduates, rating importance of ES and their own skill levels. The findings from these three data sources are presented as a series of published papers in the thesis, including a publication in press that compares the perceptions of the two groups. After communication skills, the advertisement revealed a unique finding that experience and understanding of the health field, then teamwork and tertiary qualifications were the most important ES required to work in HSM. Tertiary qualifications and job or discipline specific skills were not enough to gain an interview or secure a job. This has implications for work integrated learning in HSM courses. The surveys revealed strong agreement between senior managers and graduates on important ES. Again, the most important ES were generic, but integrity and ethical conduct trumped communication skills (written, verbal and interpersonal), as the most important ES, followed by teamwork, and being flexible and open-minded. For rating of skill levels, agreement was not found, with recent graduates’ self-ratings higher than ratings given by senior managers. Specific skill gaps were revealed in this comparison, many of which recent graduates did not appear to recognise. Findings suggest that HEIs are not developing the ES in HSM graduates that employers require. Priorities for development were identified. From the synthesis of findings, a new model of staged ES for HSM emerged as a new way of identifying skill requirements. The stages were gaining an interview meaning that graduates were short listed for a position, to securing a job, performing a HSM job, and progressing in the job. An inclusive definition of ES and using a triangulation design, including the seldom used approach of advertisement analysis was found to be valuable. In addition, the contextual nature of HSM was confirmed, reflecting different and overlapping ES requirements as the employment process progressed. Context may well explain discrepancies in findings about ES for many professions in the past

IS Early Career Job Advertisements: A Content Analysis

In this paper we examine through the content analysis of job advertisements the required knowledge, skills and competencies demanded of early career information systems graduates. Jobs appropriate for graduates with three or fewer years in the workforce were investigated. The job advertisement data was gathered in 2006. The analysis showed a wide variety of job titles. There was a high demand for technical knowledge and competencies as well as communication skills. A core cluster of IS knowledge and skills emerged which appear to be in demand across a wide variety of jobs. Issues raised include the role of entry level positions in the preparation of their incumbents for future more senior positions

The employability prospects of graduates in event management: Using data from job advertisements

As the higher education environment becomes increasingly competitive, prospective students are more likely to compare graduate employability prospects of different universities and different courses. Consequently, the viability of courses is being increasingly challenged with market viability based predominately on student demand, which is often based on their perceptions of workplace requirements. Event management has emerged to become a key sector of the Australian tourism industry and this has given some impetus to the need for tertiary educated event managers and for an evaluation of educational curriculum. To provide an indication of current employer requirements, a nationwide study of web-based job advertisements is being currently conducted. This paper reports the results from a content analysis of 105 job advertisements. The results reveal the range of industries that require event management specialists or skills, and a series of required skills and key attributes of event managers. The results of this study establish a platform from which to develop a classification of event management skills required by the industry. More importantly however, it can be used as the basis for curriculum evaluation and training needs, and create a better understanding and compatibility between event management education and industry practice

What are Employers Looking for in New Veterinary Graduates? A Content Analysis of UK Veterinary Job Advertisements

As veterinary educators, we have a responsibility to ensure that our graduates are prepared for working life. Veterinary practices, like any other businesses, rely on good employees, and the implications of a poor match between newly employed veterinarian and employing practice could be extremely costly in terms of personal well-being and enjoyment of work as well as the time, financial, and goodwill costs of high staff turnover for the practice. Contemporary veterinary curricula encompass a range of teaching to complement the clinical content; including communication, teamwork, problem solving, and business skills, to support good practice and increase the employability of new graduates. Previous studies have examined the qualities required of early career veterinarians as viewed by educators, recent graduates, pet owners, and practitioners; however, nobody has previously constructed a picture of the employment market for new veterinary graduates by exploring the nature of its recruitment advertising. Three months of UK veterinary job advertisements were examined. Content analysis yielded 10 distinct characteristics desired by employers of early career veterinarians. The most common by far was “enthusiasm,” followed by an interest in a particular area of practice, being an “all-rounder” (i.e., having a broad range of skills), demonstrating good communication skills, teamwork, client care, and independence, as well as being caring, ambitious, and having high clinical standards. While several of these qualities are expected and are specifically taught in veterinary school, the dominance of “enthusiasm” as a specifically desired trait raises interesting questions about the characteristics of veterinary students who we are supporting, encouraging, or maybe even suppressing, during veterinary training

Desirable ICT Graduate Attributes: Theory vs. Practice

The majority of ICT graduates must begin their careers by successfully fulfilling the requirements advertised within online recruitment sites. Although considerable research into employer requirements is commonly undertaken when preparing curricula, studies investigating how well the graduate attributes on which curricula are based match those required by employers have been limited in terms of the techniques used. This study employs an innovative approach of analyzing online ICT employment advertisements in Australia and the United States to determine the key attributes sought by ICT employers, together with the most commonly required skill groupings. A position-based wrapper system was developed to extract the advertisement data, which was then analyzed using a text mining package. The results are benchmarked against those from standard ICT curricula produced by academic and professional bodies. The findings suggest that employers place greatest emphasis upon experience and technological skills; although current curricula meet these requirements, their emphases warrant revision. There also appear to be differences between professional body curricula and the ISCC ’99 curriculum which was produced by industry and academia, with the latter appearing to match employment market demands more closely

Employability skills required of accountants

Employability skills have become increasingly important in a competitive job market in a globalised world of advanced technology.Our study examines employability skills of accountants as indicated in job advertisements in Australia and New Zealand, as they provide a window into the skills that are most valued by employers.The results show that of the 31 identified skills, 13 were most cited.Importantly, the most sought after skills included the ability to collaborate with colleagues, present, discuss and defend views, and having a positive attitude.Overall, a team player with a positive attitude and good communication skills appeared to be the most valued behavioural skill as perceived by employers.This probably reflects a change in the work of accountants, from being ‘backroom number crunchers’ to engaged business professionals

Employability skills required of accountants

Employability skills have become increasingly important in a competitive job market in a globalised world of advanced technology.Our study examines employability skills of accountants as indicated in job advertisements in Australia and New Zealand, as they provide a window into the skills that are most valued by employers.The results show that of the 31 identified skills, 13 were most cited.Importantly, the most sought after skills included the ability to collaborate with colleagues, present, discuss and defend views, and having a positive attitude.Overall, a team player with a positive attitude and good communication skills appeared to be the most valued behavioural skill as perceived by employers.This probably reflects a change in the work of accountants, from being ‘backroom number crunchers’ to engaged business professionals

Layoffs, Inequity and COVID-19: A Longitudinal Study of the Journalism Jobs Crisis in Australia from 2012 to 2020

In Australia and beyond, journalism is reportedly an industry in crisis, a crisis exacerbated by COVID-19. However, the evidence revealing the crisis is often anecdotal or limited in scope. In this unprecedented longitudinal research, we draw on data from the Australian journalism jobs market from January 2012 until March 2020. Using Data Science and Machine Learning techniques, we analyse two distinct data sets: job advertisements (ads) data comprising 3,698 journalist job ads from a corpus of over 8 million Australian job ads; and official employment data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Having matched and analysed both sources, we address both the demand for and supply of journalists in Australia over this critical period. The data show that the crisis is real, but there are also surprises. Counter-intuitively, the number of journalism job ads in Australia rose from 2012 until 2016, before falling into decline. Less surprisingly, for the entire period studied the figures reveal extreme volatility, characterised by large and erratic fluctuations. The data also clearly show that COVID-19 has significantly worsened the crisis. We then tease out more granular findings, including: that there are now more women than men journalists in Australia, but that gender inequity is worsening, with women journalists getting younger and worse-paid just as men journalists are, on average, getting older and better-paid; that, despite the crisis besetting the industry, the demand for journalism skills has increased; and that, perhaps concerningly, the skills sought by journalism job ads increasingly include social media and generalist communications